Fred’s newsletter 15.12.21

A warm welcome from the snails in France.

Good morning,

I hope all is well with you — it has been a long time since I wrote to you. A few months have passed, nearly 4 to be precise. I can’t believe how fast the time goes. The middle of December already!

Last time I spoke to you, Betty, Camile and I were about to set off on holiday. It had been two years since we visited France and it took some serious organising at l'escargot bleu before we could reach our cottage in Auvergne. Luckily, we all managed to be fully vaccinated in time to travel, but it was a close shave.

We loaded the car in a hurry but didn’t take much — 2 pairs of socks and we were off! We drove to Portsmouth to get the ferry to Caen. The road was quiet, as was the ferry. There was a weird feeling onboard. I can’t describe it properly, like a mix of happiness and anxiety. Once in France we drove three hours to my parents and stayed with them for three days.

Then we headed to our cottage in Auvergne. It is very remote, and we were prepared to arrive to some surprises, but hoping for as few as possible. In the past, we have arrived to some less than pleasant discoveries and as no-one has been in since February 2020, we had no idea what state the place would be in.

Thankfully, the house was sound. And most importantly, it was dry. There were no signs of water getting in, and that was a good thing. Usually, the grass surrounding the house is pretty much non-existent when we go for our annual holiday in July when it‘s hot and dry, but we had been warned that the weather this summer had been cold and damp. That benefitted the grass which was thick and green all around the house. However, things had also been growing inside the house! Lots of spiders and mice, but no real damage thank goodness.

There then ensued a couple of days of cleaning. After throwing a few books and blankets in the bin (damaged by those 4-legged rascals) we were almost ready to rest and enjoy a few glasses of wine and some good food in front of the fire. Finally, we were on holiday. The summer appeared in September, and I mean full summer, with temperatures reaching 30 degrees, for most of the length of our stay, which is very unusual.

The entrance to the church.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned the church to you before. It’s up on the hill sitting proudly looking across the valley. Miraculously it’s still standing having been built in the 12th Century. There are no doors or windows and it’s mainly used for parties when friends and family visit if the weather is not kind and we can’t gather outdoors. It’s a beautiful building and an ongoing project for us.

My brother Olivier on the roof of the church. A braver man than I am!

There he is again - being brave.

Spot the church!

Saying that, it does come with a few issues. There’s a constant battle with mother nature who tries (and succeeds) to take over. There are trees growing on the roof and ivy climbing across the stonework. These buggers managed to turn a full week of our holiday into a full week of hard work. A few nails were lost in the yanking of ivy from the exterior. I am afraid of heights, so Camile and my brother Olivier had to climb onto the roof to remove the trees and repair the slates to prevent water getting in. On occasion we were aided on our quest with a well-deserved glass of wine. After all, it was very hard work in that heat!

Worth all the hard work.

A well-deserved reward.

But we all still enjoyed our holiday, with visits from friends and family. And as you would expect, lots of food was consumed with some local grappe juice. Time flew and before long we were on the road again, heading back to our home in Scotland.

While we were away, there was plenty going on at l’escargot bleu. We had a few people coming in to do maintenance work, plus a fair bit of decorating. We swapped the tables for bigger, more comfortable ones, and we replaced the central dresser with a new one so that Sebastien, Sophie and Jonathan can prepare steak tartare and other dishes right at the heart of the restaurant. I should say that we haven’t added more tables, we decided to keep the distance between them to enhance your experience.

The main change though, is to our basement — now a cosy wine bar! It took a bit longer than we expected to get it all ready, but we finally opened on the 1st of December. There’s a mixture of high tables and booth seating, as well as bar stools, and a wood burning stove keeps the place warm and gives it a comfy feel. As well as the main bar, there’s a little nook table beside our ‘wine cave’, and seats on the patio, as well two wood-lined cellars that we’ve created as private areas.

It's Christmas at bleu. Can you see a new sign?

Welcome to our new wine bar.

Get cosy in front of our log-burning stove.

Bar stools for a good view of service!

Drinks on the patio?

The wine bar has 2 private outdoor areas.

Sample blackboard menu of nibbles and plates.

Aperigoat cheese.

Wine bar snails.

The restaurant has been doing well and we’ve managed to regain a sense of momentum with our new opening hours (Wednesday to Saturday). This helps the team immensely, as we are all working the same hours. It creates a good balance and ambiance. Also, a limited number of covers helps improve the quality of our offering and ensures our guests are comfortable, providing a better experience overall.

Nose-to-tail: Hebridean hogget with lightly spiced and candied fruits.

Hare à la royale.

Still lots to harvest at the garden.

Paris-Brest is now a firm favourite at the restaurant.

Legendary chef Fergus Henderson stopped by for lunch last month, and we enjoyed a chat.

Truly fabulous produce has been flowing through the kitchen: Hebridean lamb, partridge, and Bresse chickens; our turkey this year is grass-fed from Perthshire, as are our pigs. In 2021, more than ever we have been able to source products of extremely good provenance and quality. I find that the older I get, the more (and more) critical I’m becoming about food entering the kitchen. It is a never-ending task to be 100% successful on provenance, but we are doing everything we can to maintain that standard. By way of recognition, we were thrilled to win ‘Scottish restaurant of the year’ at the Slow Food in the UK Awards last week. Thank you so much if you voted for us. I am very proud.

Our festive opening hours are on our website – click here to see them – and we will be opening the wine bar at the same times as the restaurant is open. No need to book, for now. If you have a meal with us, remember to leave enough time to enjoy the wine bar if you choose to do so. And as we are open on Hogmanay evening, you might like to join us for a glass or two?

We are closed at the beginning of January, and re-open on Wednesday the 12th for dinner. I've just realised that I have managed to write a whole newsletter without mentioning Covid. We want to reassure you that we take everyone's safety extremely seriously and our safety precautions continue to be as thorough as possible. We hope to see you in 2022 if not before, and wish you all a very happy Christmas.

A tout bientôt,
Fred